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Polybag set in a bottle. Also a shame they didn't come up with a new taller panel for the flat side, as the joins look horrible. And what is happening at the top-side (as shown) of the bottle? Why so many pieces there and not just two panels like the side?

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Lego Ideas sets don't have stickers (Big Bang Theory was an exception, but there was a part that needed detailing that Lego have never printed before)

3 hours ago, Rikus said:

The bottle is really beautiful and the stand look nice, too... but the ship itself is really awful IMHO...

I have to agree. The final set has a much smaller bottle than the original, also, since the final set has the bottle sitting level instead of a corner pointing down there is much less space for tall masts, so I can understand them needing to shrink the ship. The problem is, the new ship has a large and blocky hull, and the sails look a little squat - it's probably a well-executed and clever build, but compared to the original it lacks the elegance and finesse.

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Here is a comparison between the original concept and the TLG version of the ship... Find the differences yourself....

The bottle is really beautiful and the stand look nice, too... but the ship itself is really awful IMHO...

Well, the ship looks like it was shrunk in size from the original proposal to fit the downscaled bottle. I do feel sorry for those anticipating this set for the ship primarily, but I myself like the final product for its cleaner looking bottle, as the initial proposal's bottle design looked rather messy I thought.

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Why is everybody complaining about the price? $70 USD for almost 1,000 pieces is a steal!

962 - (over) 280 round plates = 682 parts maximum. The plates are typically 1c parts, they are often gap fillers in a PAB cup. So it is about $67 for 680 parts once the bulk filler is removed, so 10c a part.

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Thanks @Rikus for the side-by-side comparison pics. I don't really follow ideas anymore until the sets are on the shelves, so hadn't noticed what a let down the actual ship is compared to the proposal.

Obviously it had to be scaled down to fit the new bottle, and the bottle and the stand are really well done--despite the small panels it looks a lot cleaner than I anticipated. It's just too bad they couldn't keep the bottle a little bigger in order to keep the ship size closer to the Ideas submission.

I might look for a way to get this, but more for a parts pack than anything. The compass dish is very nice, and those big curved clear pieces just scream to be built into a space fleet, but there's no way I'd pay full price. I look forward to seeing it in person at my local brand store.

Edit: is this the first time an official set has used the loose-studs technique for water? Maybe it's just a pet peeve of mine, but that always seems like kind of a lazy approach, and seeing it in a set is disappointing.

Edited January 11, 2018 by rodiziorobs

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The bottle looks amazing, but they absolutely butchered the ship. I don't even understand why, 5 minutes of googling you can find great looking mini-ships that would fit here, so it's shocking the designers couldn't make a proper ship for the smaller size with a natural looking keel, masts and ropes. I was expecting a ship in a bottle, not a great bottle with a gross approximation of a ship inside.

Price a tad high too whatever way you spin it compared to other Ideas sets.

Overall I'd be surprised if the original designer isn't disappointed.

As it is, I might buy it, but find a MOC for a ship, as this one looks horrible from outside the bottle.

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Edit: is this the first time an official set has used the loose-studs technique for water? Maybe it's just a pet peeve of mine, but that always seems like kind of a lazy approach, and seeing it in a set is disappointing.

It was done with loose white tiles for frozen water (aka snow) in the snowglobe.

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Really, this could've all been avoided if instead of the ridiculous blue water parts they used those alotted pieces to build up the ship.

Well, they were going to have water in the bottle regardless (it's a staple of ships-in-bottles and was part of the original submission), so some pieces would be used for that regardless. And even if they omitted the blue water 1x1 parts, I imagine the cost of those parts is fairly low, which means their elimination wouldn't really give much room for any parts needed to build up the ship. And then, if they made the ship taller at all with that extra detail, it would require a larger bottle, which would cost more for them and for the buyer, and may have led to a build which didn't meet their standards for their sets (structurally sound, enjoyable, accessible, etc.).

Even when omitting the blue 1x1 pieces the price is still quite good, especially considering the large elements used for the bottle.

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I agree with @GregoryBrick, the price per part ratio isn't so bad. What still gets me is the proportions.

Specifically, the height of the ship has been bugging me, so I did some math to figure out what could be done for a potential mod. The original submission had the bottle rotated to rest on a corner rather than flat, which raises the overall height since the bottle isn't a circle. If the official set had done the same (without changing the dimensions at all) this alone would have allowed for more vertical space by about four plates.

Additionally, the ship is perched two plates higher than the actual floor of the bottle (the difference between the interior of a panel and the thickness of a brick).

Finally, it looks like you could rebuild the hull of the ship to shave off part of the bottom, so it looks more submerged. That could save you as much as two more plates.

All added up, if you were to rotate the bottle, rebuild the hull, and take advantage of the extra space in the panel interiors, you could build more than 2 bricks higher than TLG's design, which would be sufficient IMO to correct the proportions, allowing for taller masts and rigging like in the original submission.

It would require some reworking of the base where it meets the bottle in order to hold it rotated 45° and secure the ship inside, but that could be done with clips rather than stud connections. Some additional parts would be needed to rebuild the masts taller, and you would also want to replace the brown "floor" of the bottle (in its current configuration) with clear panels or bricks once the whole thing was rotated. It wouldn't require more big curvy (pricey) clear panels, though, just some basic 3x4s or even regular 1x2 bricks.

If I end up getting this set--which is no guarantee--then I am definitely going to try it out.

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The bottle in the submission is also 6 studs wider on all 4 sides (wider as in if the bottle is placed vertically it like on a bar shelf it is more voluminous by 6 studs on all sides). The submission uses 6x6 transparent wall pieces along with the 4-wide wall pieces while the final only uses 4-wide wall pieces before the curved pieces. That makes the submission bottle significantly larger (4 studs vs 10 studs before the rounded edge) along with the tilt (which would require a creative securing method for the ship to the bottle or stand if desired). Also worth mentioning there are what appear to be a couple of out of system connections for the original ship not to mention the unorthodox rigging attachment methods.

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The submission uses 6x6 transparent wall pieces along with the 4-wide wall pieces while the final only uses 4-wide wall pieces before the curved pieces. That makes the submission bottle significantly larger (4 studs vs 10 studs before the rounded edge) along with the tilt (which would require a creative securing method for the ship to the bottle or stand if desired).

Yes, the original bottle was much bigger. The new bottle though, has bigger dimensions than TLG is using. I rechecked my work with this sloppy worksheet:

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Yes, the original bottle was much bigger. The new bottle though, has bigger dimensions than TLG is using. I rechecked my work with this sloppy worksheet:

Reveal hidden contents

By new bottle do you mean tilted bottle because the one in the drawing (fantastic sketches btw) still has the same dimensions as the official set understanding full well that tilting it will certainly yield some extra space inside.

What I was saying was that if one wanted to put a ship as close to the submission's ship inside then the bottle would need to be 2.5 times larger than the one in the official set in addition to needing to be tilted for it to work.

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What I was saying was that if one wanted to put a ship as close to the submission's ship inside then the bottle would need to be 2.5 times larger than the one in the official set in addition to needing to be tilted for it to work.

Got it. Yeah, it would have been nice if the official set had kept the size of the Ideas submission, but I can see why they didn't--since it's kind of a niche appeal, going more expensive wouldn't have done them any favors.

I was just suggesting a ship closer in proportion to the original, which TLG could have come closer to if they had rotated the bottle, without increasing the size or piece count much, if at all. As is, I think they missed the boat here (pun fully intended).

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This idea has been burning in my brain so I had to build a proof of concept.

My initial idea of using plates with bars created some odd geometry where the ship was concerned, so I went with a different clip setup:

I just cobbled together parts on hand (hence the random parts) but the dimensions are the same as the official set, turned on its side. The black 2x1 on the bottom just fits into the curvature of the rounded panel, and there is about 3 plates' worth extra space at the top above the lance. I tried to put the gray 1x1 with clip at about where the top of the deck would be. That could of course change depending on how much you wanted to submerge/raise the ship, but my objective of having space for taller masts was met.

Of course, with the change, there are some drawbacks. The gray T-bars are a little unsightly, and there would be a visible 1x1 snot brick in the bottle sidewall. I used light gray here as I figured it was the most unintrusive, but you could always use trans-clear headlight bricks, and use the anti-stud on the back to attach the bottle to the base. The only other issue is replacing the larger panels with smaller pieces, which does destroy the glass effect. However, it would mean you would have more large panels to replace the brown that is currently the floor of the bottle in the unmodified set.

I haven't worked out specifically how to secure the bottle to the base, but it would be similar to the setup inside the bottle where the ship attaches.

I know I said in this very thread that I would never pay full price for this set, but given the thought I have put into it it's almost like I have to. Plus, Jacob Sadovich, the original project designer is coming to my local (Murray, UT, USA) store to sign the sets before official release. Its simply getting harder to pass up, as much as my wallet is trying to tell me to forget about it.

Edited January 23, 2018 by rodiziorobs

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I know I said in this very thread that I would never pay full price for this set, but given the thought I have put into it it's almost like I have to. Plus, Jacob Sadovich, the original project designer is coming to my local (Murray, UT, USA) store to sign the sets before official release. Its simply getting harder to pass up, as much as my wallet is trying to tell me to forget about it.

Excellent work on that mockup! Some creative construction and I can deeply appreciate testing out and proof of concept.

Also that is really cool that he will be in your area, the signing would be really hard to pass up. Definitely share any photos and conversation you have if you go!